Methods - Synthesis & Techniques

Owing to their unusual structural motifs and promising pharmacological properties, colchicine (1) and NCME (2) have attracted considerable attention from synthetic chemists, which has resulted in several elegant total syntheses of 1 and 2. Recently, we developed an enantioselective synthesis of colchicine (1) from commercially available and inexpensive 2,3,4-trimethoxybenzaldehyde (5). The challenging tricyclic 6–7–7 core of colchicinoids was efficiently introduced using an intramolecular oxidopyrylium-mediated [5 + 2] cycloaddition reaction. In our continuing efforts toward the synthesis of biologically active natural products, we herein describe a modified concise and highly enantioselective synthesis of colchicine using the Wacker oxidation for the regioselective construction of the highly oxidized tropolone C-ring. Moreover, asymmetric total syntheses of β-lumicolchicine and NCME were also achieved.